Key gun control bill will be introduced on Thursday

WASHINGTON - Key gun-control legislation will be introduced Thursday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who successfully sponsored an earlier ban on assault weapons, as she and other lawmakers push for tougher federal gun laws in the wake of the Dec. 14 school massacre in Newtown, Conn.

Feinstein, D-Calif., an influential lawmaker and a leading advocate of gun control, will be joined by an array of congressional co-sponsors when she announces the details of the bill - which she has titled "The Assault Weapons Ban of 2013."

The measure is expected to specify what kind of military-style assault weapons would be covered by a ban, as well as define the kinds of high-capacity ammunition magazines that also would be outlawed. President Barack Obama endorsed those aims.

Previous legislation

The 1994 ban on assault weapons authored by Feinstein outlawed a specific list of rifles and stipulated that any such weapon would be banned if it had a detachable magazine plus two military-style features such as a pistol grip, a flash suppressor, a bayonet lug or grenade launcher.

Critics of the ban have said it was ineffective because gun companies simply re-engineered weapons to get around its requirements.

The new legislation to be introduced Thursday also will ban specific weapons, but it will be different from the original law, which expired in 2004, sources familiar with the measure said.

Getting specific

The new ban will cover any weapon with a detachable magazine and a single military-style feature. "A one-feature test captures more assault weapons and makes it harder for the gun industry to evade the law by modifying a banned weapon," the San Francisco-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence said in an assault weapons policy summary.